Hey all. I was looking around for exhaust upgrades like catbacks or even axlebacks and I noticed that these upgrades ar very expensive for minimal horsepower gains. So I decided that I would do something different as an experiment in saving money. I went on Ebay and bought a very cheap muffler for $15 and had it put on at a local shop in Lexington. They replaced my whole axleback pipe with a new larger diameter pipe and installed it for $70. I spent $85 total on my axleback exhaust and it works just as good as a $300 one from any distributor. What I want to know is, is something wrong with my process? Would I be better off paying $300 for something that has been researched, or am I better off leaving my exhaust as is?

Check out a sound clip here:
Video of $85 axleback exhaust

 

honda

 

Good job, but people do that all the time.

Edit..I've talked to guys that got the whole exaust done for that much. but they had the muffler already.

 

Okay, let's remember that this was an experiment in saving money. You can keep your stupid comments and flaming to yourself. I am not asking for opinions, I am asking for advice on whether it is worth it or not to upgrade to an expensive aftermarket exhaust. Please, if you are not going to be of any help do not ***** this post with flames.

 

How much bigger did you go with your pipe diameter? Unless you are going turbo, a larger pipes actually will hurt your bottom end. Also, what kind of muffler did you get for $15?

 

buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrr

 

No way you got a full stainless for 70 dollars with mandrel bends

 

for $15 off ebay I think you might be testing the waters, it might be all good now, but down the road, say a few months it might just start to turn into a crap muffler. Theres a reason for the expensive aftermarket prices, it's because they have good quality. By spending say, $300-350 you will get a good manufactuerer that most likely wont cause you problems like your muffler turning into crap because of the bad quality.

I also know someone that got a muffler off EBAY, he was very excited about it while he got it installed, months later, muffler sounded more raspy and raspy.

Yes, it's worth the aftermarket prices

 

This is what I figured. Thanks for the advice. I'll just have to ride it out and see how it goes. No problems so far but I've only had it installed for 4 or 5 months. Anyway, thanks for your input.

 

As mentioned earlier, the money you spent was for an aluminum exhaust, not mandrel bent stainless steel. The biggest drawback that immediately comes to mind are the ones associated with it not being stainless steel (ie rusting out). Other than that, if youre happy with it more power to ya.

 

i geuss sometimes you get lucky, cause i had my cheapy muffler on for 2 years now and not a single problem at all. sofar it still sounds good ,looks good and has been given me a better top end since day one.

yeah it may be alittle ricey , but i like rice. lol

 

Someone made a good point to me the other day when talkiing about exhausts - stainless steel ones may last a loooong time, but how long do you plan on keeping the car? I don't mean to get a really cheap one, but you dont need to be buying the muffler for the next owner too.
Apparently my uncle used to have a similar theory about engine oil... but that was a long time ago and he drives nice things now.

$.02

 

in order to save money, you need to buy the good cheese FIRST, otherwise later you would just end up wasting more money buying upgrades you should've already gotten to begin with.

 

well i chose to get a quality muffler than actually works to MUFFLE the sound. so i went with Magnaflow. Great sound and not loud at all. in all my axlebacl costed me 190$ installed/fabricated.

 

all i know is that the ra has pretty good setup alredy except for the slight restiction up front so all i really whant is the new headers commin out ,, and a free flowing muffler for now . i see no reason at this point to get crazy with exhaust modifications. ill just use what i have until it goes bad then i will upgrade at that point since i have to change it any way.

and if the headers dont make my car to loud then ill get the high flow cat to compliment it .